The following map shows Eritrea and Ethiopia in 1987 when the Ethiopian government redrew its internal boundaries. This map clearly disproves the common Eritrean statements that the boundaries of Eritrea have not changed in 92 years. Not a single international organization or foreign government contested Ethiopia's right (in international legal terms) to redraw its internal boundaries.
"Assab is in fact one of the areas of most major change. One component of the new Assab autonomous region will be the present province of Assab, which is being taken firmly away from Eritrea. The five districts comprising this large and strategic coastal strip stretch far north into Eritrea, almost as far as the port of Massawa."
"It also reasserts the fact that Assab port is no longer part of Eritrea... Ethiopia's port had already been made an administrative area responsible directly to Addis Ababa in the late 1970s. The new move reinforces and legitimises its status as an Ethiopian, rather than Eritrean city."
It should be noted here that Ethiopia is not now claiming Assab. The purpose of this article is simply to show how the Eritreans continue to spread demonstrably false information.
However, the plight of the Afar freedom fighters should not be forgotten. It was their united Afar region that was broken up in 1991 with the coastline going to Eritrea. Surely they deserve a UN-sponsored referendum to decide their own future.
Their feelings about this at the time were summed up in a Christian Science Monitor article, a portion of which is reproduced as a graphic below: